1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a device for dispensing a flowable food product from a container and controlling the placement of the dispensed product.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous food products are available in flowable paste-like or viscous liquid forms, exemplary products including: margarine, butter, mayonnaise, honey, mustard, syrups, cheese formulations, peanut butter, ketchup, confectionery paste, and pureed products such as tomato paste and baby foods.
It is often difficult to remove and dispense the aforesaid food products from standard containers. Those products which are non-pourable are often packaged in wide mouth containers, requiring removal by the usual eating utensils. Such action often causes contamination of the product in the container and requires cleaning of the utensils. Products which are pourable can be packaged in narrow mouth containers. However, dripping and uncontrollable flow is often encountered, resulting in inaccurate placement of the food product, and necessitating cleaning of the exterior of the container.
The use of plastic squeeze containers is well established for the commercial packaging of flowable food products of relatively low viscosity or thin consistency such as mustard and ketchup. However, the squeeze containers are not effective with products of heavier consistency such as peanut butter. Also, the squeeze containers cannot provide a uniform thinly spread layer on a piece of bread. Although some squeeze containers employed for the commercial packaging of food products can be refilled by the user after all the original contents have been dispensed, such action will generally entail some effort and inconvenience. The general intent, however, of commercial squeeze containers for food products is that the container serves a one-time use as a storage container and dispensing device.
Applicator devices for dispensing barely flowable substances such as toothpaste, adhesive, caulking, grease and other paste-like substances have earlier been disclosed comprised of a squeezable container equipped with removable closure means adapted to spread or otherwise direct the placement of the extruded material. Typical of such devices are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,716,251 to Pearce, U.S. Pat. No. 2,930,063 to Stull, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,044 to Accardo. The aforesaid applicator devices are designed to dispense material in a continuous straight line path in the axial direction of movement of the device. None are specifically designed to spread dispensed material in reciprocal strokes transverse to the axis of the device.
It is accordingly and object of the present invention to provide a device for controllably dispensing a flowable food product from a squeeze container.
It is another object of this invention to provide a device as in the foregoing object which is removably associated with said container.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a device of the aforesaid nature of streamlined construction which facilitates cleaning and re-use.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device of the aforesaid nature to facilitate the spreading of a flowable food product in a path transverse to the direction of emergence of said food product from a squeezable container.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a device of the aforesaid nature of monolithic construction amenable to low cost manufacture.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide apparatus for storing and dispensing a flowable food product.
These objects and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.